Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Tech Giant Apple to Celebrate 50 Years Since Company's Founding; Apple Co-Founder Talks About the Evolution of the Tech Industry; Officials to Hold Briefing on Deadly LaGuardia Collision; Flood Emergency Devastates Parts of Hawaii, Hundreds Rescued. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 23, 2026 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It's been almost 50 years since Apple was founded by Ronald Wayne, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, aka the two Steves, and the company has come a long way since then. Just how far has it come? Well for that we have to step into the DeLorean and punch in 1984 and go 88 miles per hour if we want to belabor this and to see that unveiling of the Macintosh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACINTOSH: Hello, I'm Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So the company also came out with products like the Macintosh 2 and the iPod, but then in 2007 Steve Jobs presents the iPhone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE JOBS, THEN CEO APPLE: An iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. An iPod, a phone -- are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The iPad, the Apple Watch, even Siri are among the other innovations from Apple. So let's focus on Siri for a second because artificial intelligence is now at the forefront of the tech industry and there are a lot of questions over how AI will not just transform tech but also how it could impact things like the healthcare industry or the employment market. Let's talk more about this bold new era in the tech industry and also take a look back as well with the co- founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak.

Steve, thank you so much for being with us. This is a really big time period here as we're approaching this 50-year mark. How are you reflecting on Apple's legacy 50 years since you all launched the company? STEVE WOZNIAK, APPLE CO-FOUNDER: 50 years is an unbelievably long time. When people get 50 years old it just shows us that time only moves in one direction. When we started, I'd read things like companies, only 2 percent of the companies will make it or, you know, but to live that long it just about never happens.

Maybe companies like IBM and still kept the same name Apple. So I'm very honored that Apple is in my mind the best, the most humanist of the big tech companies.

KEILAR: And it is certainly evolved. I do want you to listen to something that current CEO Tim Cook had to say. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are the things that worry you about Apple's product's impact on society?

TIM COOK, CEO APPLE: Well I don't want people using them too much. I don't want people looking at the smartphone more than they're looking in someone's eyes.

As if they're just scrolling endlessly. This is not the way you want to spend your day. Go out and spend it in nature.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You know I think of this time period and using Apple products over the years and just thinking how incredible it is to be alive at this moment, right? But as you're thinking of these amazing ways in which computers have transformed our lives I also wonder how you're thinking about the ways that having these kind of computers in our hands has changed how people are relating to each other.

WOZNIAK: I mean obviously it's, you know, the big communication things when the first internet first came. But that's been changed. All the business models are get trap your customers, so they have to go through you even to communicate with others.

And then you own them. You can make changes on them. They didn't make themselves and didn't want. And you own them more than the average Joe owns himself.

But we all can't live without so many of the things that we get trapped into. I have been successful. Tim would like what I've done.

[14:35:00]

I mean I really have disconnected from the technology quite a bit. And I believe that nature is much more important than what humans do. Nature the environment all that.

As a matter of fact that's why Apple's 50th birthday really will probably be on April 2nd this year. Has to do with things like leap years. And when does the sun go around the -- when does Earth go around the sun? How long a time. That's a year, you know, trip around the sun. That's how I think about it.

And the Earth's going to be in the same place as when Apple was born probably on a on April 2nd this year. So I believe in going the nature way and don't believe the simplified calendar the simplified for weak human minds. And yes, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

Oh my God, that's why I gave up on Facebook and social web. I just don't want to -- did it for about three weeks. And I just scroll and scroll and scroll.

I said that's like a habit and I was against habits. It's like an addiction. A strong habit is an addiction. And I said, I'm not going that way.

KEILAR: So I mean, what did you do? You just disconnected cold turkey. Is that how you did it?

WOZNIAK: Cold turkey from any social internet. I had 5,000 Facebook friends that I didn't know. You know I just sort of said OK whenever anybody asked.

And they sent funny things. I enjoyed the entertainment experience, but I didn't want to get so -- I didn't want to get addicted to anything. You know, I never have been.

KEILAR: And so iPhone Siri is the first AI agent that many people interacted with. Many people get their outside AI tools through the Apple store. And you can really trace that, right, from your roots with Steve Jobs in 1976 to this moment that we are in with artificial intelligence.

You can kind of see those breadcrumbs. What excites you? What scares you about AI?

WOZNIAK: Well AI, I mean everybody's trying to make a brain. And when the engineers figured out how to make a brain, they figured out the way to do it. Takes nine months.

I don't know. AI just -- funny thing is I will even ask, as a I don't use AI much at all, but I've asked it a few questions to test it. I'll ask a question where one word is the key item, the direction I want to go, and AI will come back with a whole bunch of clear explanations that are on the subject but not what I really was interested in. Hard to explain, I often read things and they just sound too dry and too perfect. And I want something from a human being and I'm disappointed a lot.

KEILAR: Do you think that it can get better and ultimately replace humans in some regards?

WOZNIAK: Everything will get better, but I've seen no sign yet that we understand well enough how the brain works to get to that point that it replaces a human, has emotions, cares about things, wants to help others, wants to be a good person. No, I don't see any signs of that yet. You can't say something can't happen though with technology.

Someday maybe it could be really smart and understand you the way another human would. But it hasn't lived a human life to understand what humans are going through to sometimes catch those little nuances in the way you speak.

KEILAR: And where do you think, as we are coming up on this anniversary, may it be April 1st or April 2nd depending on the leap years as you say. Where do you think Apple is headed here in the next 50 years? Where do you hope that it's headed?

WOZNIAK: I hope that Apple finds a way to -- I don't know. It might be somebody outside Apple, but I hope Apple doesn't shut down the little young inventor that doesn't ever have control and power and huge wealth and have a place for them.

The little young entrepreneurs can be the most fun thing in life for a person finding their way in life. And I hope Apple, I don't know, enhances that rather than kind of tries to control it.

KEILAR: Steve Wozniak may there be more like you. That seems to be what you're talking about. What will they come up with?

We're waiting to see. Steve Wozniak, thank you so much for being with us.

WOZNIAK: Thanks so much. Glad to be here.

KEILAR: Great to have you.

And so we are now following this latest out of LaGuardia. Flights are now able to take off but just from one runway. We're waiting for a news conference from officials on the deadly collision there about 30 minutes from now. We'll bring that to you. Stay with us.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking news to CNN. In less than an hour, Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, and the head of the FAA are expected to give an update after this deadly collision between an Air Canada plane and a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia airport. As you may be able to see in just moments from these live images, one runway at LaGuardia just reopened moments ago. Analysts are predicting the runway where the collision occurred could stay closed for at least a week as officials investigate.

Sadly, both the pilot and co-pilot of the Air Canada flight were killed. And we just got this new surveillance video of the moment of that collision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(VIDEO SHOWING MOMENT OF COLLISION)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Retired FAA air traffic controller Dave Riley joins us now. Dave, thanks so much for being with us.

How do you interpret some of the audio that we've heard that recording from the control tower where you hear that air traffic controller saying to the fire truck ostensibly, stop, stop, stop?

DAVE RILEY, RETIRED FAA AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Yes, thanks for having me, Boris.

[14:45:00]

And first, my condolences go out to the families of the crew that was tragically lost in this incident, as well as all those that have been affected by injuries. And to my brother, air traffic controller, who's going to be having to deal with this for a long, long time.

But listening to the audio, I'll be very curious to see the details as they come out. And this stresses how vital the air traffic controller's job can be. And in that audio, you hear how busy the controller was.

And apparently, he was working by himself, handling multiple tasks with another emergency that was in progress. And so it's very easy to become distracted and lose track of all the moving parts that are happening on the airport at any particular time.

But this speaks to how vital the job of an air traffic controller is. And when they're overworked and distracted, these kind of tragic events can happen. And many of these controllers are working six days a week and have been for years, 10 hours a day.

From what I understand, LaGuardia Tower is at about 84 percent of their allotted staffing, which is better than most, which are around 75 percent. So it's not surprising that little things like this will happen.

SANCHEZ: As far as you were describing, the other emergency that was going on, there was a United flight that reported an odor, and it was heading back to the gate. They requested firefighters. That's why this Port Authority fire rescue vehicle was deployed.

What do those trucks typically do? What are their interactions usually like with air traffic control?

RILEY: Well, it's interesting to note that they have a minimum response time that they're held to, to respond to emergencies. And so when they -- everything happens very, very fast for them. And it's from what my understanding, my recollection, it's like two minutes from the time they get a call out. They need to be on scene around the airport.

And they are going a thousand percent fast. They are doing everything they can to expedite. You know, you hear the call of the trucks requesting permission to cross. The tower gives them permission. And then from initial reports I've seen, the timing is like two or three minutes until he clears the Air Canada jet to land.

And then it's mere seconds from when the impact happens. So everything happens very, very fast. He was very, very busy coordinating a new gate and coordinating with the emergency vehicles.

And you can become very task saturated very, very quickly. So one of the first questions that the FAA and the NTSB will look at in this investigation is the controller staffing. Was the controller working by himself?

I've been a longtime advocate of never having an air traffic controller in the tower by themselves, but it always falls back to, well, we don't have enough people to do that. The FAA staffing is at a 30 year low. And they've always said that, oh, on the midnight shift, we'll just have one person working by themselves.

And there's tragic incidents that happen like this. And a lot of it could be mitigated by having another person there to handle the coordination for the finding of a gate where the controller can focus on aircraft landing at a party. It's tragic that this has to happen.

But it just goes to show you how vital the job that air traffic controllers do. And when they're overworked and underpaid and understaffed facilities, it's tragic. It really is.

It's heartbreaking.

SANCHEZ: What would you say is the principal reason that there are fewer people willing to work in air traffic control? And why are so many ultimately deciding to leave the profession?

RILEY: Well, there's a lot of factors into it. And this is a decades long problem. This isn't a current administration problem.

They're doing what they think they can to fix the problem. But it's been going on for decades. Ever since the strike in 1981, when controllers were fired en masse, we've never had the air traffic controller staffing to the levels that it needs to be because it ebbs and flows.

And there are age restrictions, mandatory retirement age of 56. So you get some that at most are mandatorily aged out of the career. So it's a longtime problem.

And it takes three to five years to certify a new air traffic controller. So even if you hired a thousand today, you know, in five years, you may have 500 that are certified. So it's a process and it needs to be addressed. It really does.

And stop using air traffic controllers and the staffing and the budgeting as political football. It's a safety field and we need to protect it as such.

[14:50:00]

SANCHEZ: Dave Riley, thanks so much for sharing your perspective. We appreciate your time.

RILEY: Yes, thanks for having me, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Air Canada CEO just spoke about the crash. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MOUSSEAU, AIR CANADA CEO: I want to express our deepest sorrow for everyone affected. Our efforts are focused on the needs of our passengers and crew members, along with their families and loved ones. We know this is a difficult day for everyone, including all of us at Air Canada.

We know that there are many questions, but at this early stage, we do not have all the answers as the circumstances are still being assessed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Still to come, we're following panic in paradise as historic flooding hits Hawaii. Hundreds of people having to be rescued from rising waters. Don't go anywhere.

We'll be right back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: So President Trump is in Memphis right now and he's touring one of the city's most famous landmarks, Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley and his family.

KEILAR: That's right. The president spoke about the musician and his incredible talent moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I never met Elvis. And that would be one I would have liked a lot, but I do like his music, I will say. So thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for coming and visiting us.

TRUMP: Oh, let's take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're going to keep an eye on the president's movements and bring you any news from Memphis as we get it. Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. Cuba

says it's getting ready for the possibility of U.S. military aggression. The country's deputy foreign minister told NBC News that Cuba's armed forces are prepared for possible U.S. action, though they hope it does not happen. His comments coming after President Trump said last week that he could possibly take Cuba. The country is in severe economic turmoil since the Trump administration blocked oil from entering the island, exacerbated conditions there.

Residents have been protesting the dire lack of food, water and electricity. Cuba is now in the midst of its second nationwide blackout in less than a week as diplomatic talks with the U.S. continue.

Also, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un won his latest election in a landslide, 99.9 percent of the vote, reaffirming his position as supreme leader and securing the rule of his Workers Party. State media reports voter turnout was nearly 100 percent. But, of course, in North Korea, voting is not done by secret ballot. Each district gets one party-approved candidate.

And who you voted for is shared.

KEILAR: And March Madness fans just witnessed the biggest bracket- busting game so far. The first number one seed went down. Last year's champs, the Florida Gators lost to number nine Iowa last night.

The game stayed tight through the final seconds, with the Gators up two points, which is when Iowa forward, Alvaro Folgueiras, stepped back into the corner and hit the game-winning three-pointer, putting the Hawkeyes over the top. Afterward, he pointed his finger to the sky in tribute to his late father. That's nice.

The Hawkeyes are now part of the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. That's very exciting.

Today, parts of Hawaii, though, are bracing for more rain after what has just been catastrophic flooding on the island. Hawaii's governor says back-to-back storms triggered the worst flooding the state has seen in 20 years. Hundreds of people have been rescued as this rushing water has destroyed homes. It has left parts of Oahu simply inaccessible.

SANCHEZ: The flooding prompted an emergency evacuation near a dam. Officials feared it could collapse, and thankfully, so far, it's held. No deaths or missing people have been reported there.

Let's go straight to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam for the latest -- Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Boris and Brianna, you know, the governor of Hawaii told our very own Frederica Whitfield this that this could amount to a $1 billion disaster once it's all tallied up. And this aerial view really gives that perspective of the destruction, the low-lying flooding that's occurring. Keep in mind, those are mountains in the background, and a majority of the rain fell within the mountains, but of course it funnels down into the communities and the populations where people tend to live.

So this is a water vapor satellite imagery. You're looking at the Kona Low, kind of that dry area there. But notice the southwesterly wind, that it starts to pull in that deep tropical moisture.

Remember, up to 90 percent of the winds across the Hawaiian Islands come from the east. So when you get it out of the southwest and you start to see the rain pile up on these windward sides, the vegetation there can get knocked over really easily, especially when you start talking about rainfall totals that are above three feet. This is impressive.

Lots of this falling into the mountains, but again, a lot of that rain falling to the valleys below as well. Local radar, as it stands right now, looking quite ominous across Maui and into the Big Islands. So the potential here exists for additional rain to add more misery to Hawaii.

One to three inches of rain expected through Wednesday, Boris and Brianna. Something we'll keep a close eye on for additional flooding.

KEILAR: And Derek, the West is also expecting record-breaking heat. Exactly how hot are we talking here?

VAN DAM: Well, it's interesting because just in the past week or so, we have had hundreds of locations over the West that have broke all- time monthly records. But this one really stood out for me. Yuma, Arizona actually reached an all-time record high for the United States of 109 degrees.

It's never been that hot in the month of March. So that's really putting it into context. So it's all thanks to this heat dome.

We've talked about it a lot. We'll get a bit of reprieve, but it's going to build back into the back half of this month ...

END